The article presents the state of research on speech acts. It consists of several parts. In Part 1, the source theories developed in the philosophy of language are presented. In Part 2, the author focuses on the development of speech act theory in the twenty-first century, with particular emphasis on the work of Jacob Mey. Part 3 contains a characterisation of speech act classification. Part 4 presents the two dominant analytical approaches in recent years: the CCSARP (Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns) and local grammar. Part 5 provides an overview of the works by research discipline: cultural studies; textology and liguistic genology; rhetoric, pedagogy and discourse analysis; psychology and speech therapy.